Soldier

Chapter 16 - Finally Back

  Waking up to the circling of buzzards above her and the sun beating harshly on her face was not the ideal wake-up call but it certainly is better than an automatic in her face. She felt the stiffness in her body from both the pain of the day before and the lumpy ground she had ended up sleeping on. Crawling over to where Lucy still slept she ignored the pain the crawling made her feel.

"Hey, wake up we need to start moving we've already lost a few hours." Lucy stirred quickly sitting up only to collapse forwards.

"Sorry, sat up too fast. I think I have a concussion" She rubbed her head after regaining herself before the two of them made it to their feet.

They spent the majority of the daylight sneaking through small shrubs and behind what little cover they could find. They were looking for mines, for other people, and for anything overhead to signal that they needed to hide. The further they walked the closer she felt they were getting to their destination. They only had what little they could carry with them, which meant they didn't end up with much. They had no weapons, all were destroyed with the truck. They had a few minor things like a half-charred backpack partially filled with non-essential supplies, they brought it just in case they did find something along the way to put in it. Finding the truck that broke down was god-sent but it didn't give them any supplies because they had either had it with them or it was already gone when they got there.

"Look, oh god" Lucy broke down into a sobbing mess as they finally saw the barracks to their camp come back into view.

"Come, on Soldier, keep it together just a little longer." She encouraged Lucy in a friendly manner as they both finally collapsed to their knees within the perimeter of the compound.

From here forwards everything became a blur of medic badges and talking. She was looked over and clearly could have been in worse shape, she was given some potent medication before being transferred with Lucy via Helicopter to a local hospital. One that was full of all of the things needed to fix them both up before being sent home to recover.

After a few hours of surgery to repair her broke jaw, sew up the various cuts and decontaminate all of the smaller cuts she was placed in an ICU room alone. She woke up in a state of complete and utter defeat, she felt the pain now that she was safe. She felt the pain of losing not only her squad but her best friends, she had Lucy, yes, but nothing else here. Even that didn't make her feel better, she was very happy to know Lucy was alright but she had lost so much that it overshadowed the good.

"Miss Cameron, you had. . ." The doctor went on and on about everything they did and everything they had found but she couldn't focus on his words and only nodded to agree to them. There was a nurse, a sweet older woman with a soft kind voice that spoke to her. The voice reminded her of her mothers which brought the fact that her mother was dying back along with everything else and it was all just too much for her.

After the doctor and nurse left, she remembered the dog tags she collected and the letter Carl had even to her only a moment before the crash. She turned her bandaged head towards the bedside table and noticed the letter that had her name on it. She didn't even have time to realize that it had in the moment because she was too focused on him, too focused on ensuring his survival and safety that she didn't have the time to look at it until now.

Reaching out slowly with her bandaged and IV covered left hand she grabbed the slightly heavy envelop. She placed it on her chest before taking a moment to look around her room which she had yet to do. She wasn't surprised when she noticed the television playing a crappy comedy or the smell of disinfectant or the overwhelming whiteness these rooms always had in them.

Turning her attention back to the letter she opened it, slowly, but she managed. Pulling the letter out she felt something metal sink from the folded paper and land with a thump on her chest. She lifted the item and in her haze she was able to read the following words:

James, Carl S.***-**-****Blood Type AB Neg.Forty-Second Regiment, U.S. Army

The words sank in and the tears could no longer wait and they began to pool and soak into the bandages covering her face. She read it over and over again almost forgetting that she had a letter sitting atop the envelop on her stomach. She was sobbing, crying so hard that it started to hurt physically but she wasn't able to stop. Everything, literally everything she had been trying to hide came bubbling up and came out now. She managed, a few minutes later to take a breath and look at the letter.